


Scotch & Popcorn

by AvenuePotter



Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 18:53:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19481926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvenuePotter/pseuds/AvenuePotter
Summary: The perfect paring.





	Scotch & Popcorn

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skittle479](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skittle479/gifts).



Scotch & Popcorn

_The perfect pairing . . ._

__

A Union shuttle meanders happily in space, harboring two souls enjoying some much needed shore leave together.

“What are we listening to again?”

“This? This is Billy Joel.”

Moments later, Krill unexpectedly attack the shuttle and Captain Ed Mercer and his cartographer, Janel Tyler are extracted, separated, and held hostage within different cells aboard a Krill vessel. The two lovers had become one aboard The Orville, but from this moment forward, everything will change.

* * *

He agrees to hand over Union command codes to the Krill in order to save her life,

_But what he means by that gesture is, “Don’t hurt her. I love her.”_

But when she reveals herself as Teleya – the enemy, a Krill – and one he had once known - he hangs his head in defeat and admits, “I am an idiot.”

_Even though what he really means is, “Dammit, I loved you.”_

Teleya tells him, “When I was assigned to this vessel, I learned of the plan to capture a Union captain. I volunteered for the mission. Choosing you was MY idea.”

_But what she really means is that Captain Mercer piqued her interest from the beginning, vengeance or no._

* * *

It’s a dog eat dog universe and mere moments later the Krill ship itself is attacked by one of their embittered enemies – the Chak’tal, who have taken issue with the Krill’s “divine right” to expand into their territory. As they board the Krill ship, Mercer and Teleya are caught in the crossfire. But by working together in harmony they make it into an escape pod during the fray and then jettison themselves to a nearby planet’s surface. The escape craft has been programmed to aim for the dark side of the planet because Krill cannot handle the light.

When Mercer learns this, he says, “Must have been hard for you, being on our ship. All those bright lights.”

_He can’t believe what she put herself through just to get him. Painful micrografting to look human, giving up teaching to become a soldier . . ._

But then he asks her, “Did you actually like any of the movies I showed you?”

_Trying to see if they ever had any common ground at all._

And then he asks, “Did you feel anything at all?”

_Despite everything, he hopes she did._

Yet she answers, “No.”

Then he asks her if “it was just your mission to get close to me?”

_He hopes against hope that there was something more than that between them._

But when she answers, “That is correct,”

_He realizes he liked her much better when she was using contractions._

When she feels the need to assert that their interactions were only superficial,

_It’s just because he’s gotten too close to the truth._

“You made me a grilled cheese sandwich. You didn’t have to do that. Why did you do that?” Mercer asks, trying to prove to her – and to himself - that it was real.

But she doesn’t give him an inch.

* * *

They need to send out a distress signal in order to be rescued, but they won’t make it to high enough ground on this planet before its night will end. Mercer insists that they wait out the day under cover and when she argues, he impatiently snaps, “Teleya, the sun will kill you!”

 _Because even though she told him she intended to kill him as soon as they landed here, he doesn’t want her_ _to die._

Once they find a cave to settle in for the day, they soon find themselves arguing about their differences – the different philosophies and methodologies between the Union and the Krill. It gets heated, and at one point Mercer says accusingly, “We seem to be doing a lot less killing than you.”

“My brother would disagree,” Teleya counters.

“He would have destroyed a colony of 100,000 people!” Mercer tells her that he is sorry for that, yet, still, he feels justified in his actions.

Finally, he says, “You know, at some point the Krill and the Union are going to have to find some common ground or else one of us will be destroyed.”

_He is also referring to the both them._

She replies, “There IS no common ground.”

_Forgetting her time with him._

And when she tells him, “You fell in love with a woman who did not exist,”

_She knows that’s not true._

“There’s a lot more of her in you than you’re willing to admit. And if she is in there somewhere, tell her . . .” Mercer stumbles. He wants to say he loves her, yet all he can manage is, “Tell her I miss her.”

As Mercer prepares to sleep, Teleya requests that he lie on his side because he snores and, “It is irritating.”

He is shocked when he hears these words come from her mouth because they are what Janel had always told him at bedtime.

_But Teleya knows that snoring is bad for him, for his species . . . and it is not really that irritating._

* * *

After doing some calculations, Mercer realizes that the sun on this planet won’t go down for another 23 Earth days. They can’t wait that long for night – they are stuck on the light side. He starts to head out to set up the beacon and send a signal. Alone. Teleya draws her weapon.

“I will not allow you to leave me here.”

“I’ll come back. You have my word.”

“Why should I believe you? You have every reason to let me die.”

“Well then, you can either shoot me or trust me.”

Trust?

“I’ll see you soon.”

Teleya falters as she watches him go.

When he returns, she hesitates to let him cover her with his jacket so that she can safely go out into the sun – to wait beside the beacon for rescue. She instinctively draws her gun once more.

_She’s terrified of what trusting this man may mean._

But eventually, she relents and lets him cover her, draping his jacket over her as gently as he had during their last movie night together.

_When they had shared scotch and popcorn._

* * *

Later, as they stand by the beacon together, awaiting rescue, Mercer looks up into the sky.

“They found us,” he says.

“A Union shuttle?” she asks, surprised to see who’s coming to pick them up.

“Yeah.”

She lifts her weapon.

“What are you doing?”

“I will not allow myself to be taken prisoner.”

“Teleya, don’t do this,” Mercer says, disappointment lining his face.

The Chak’tal have destroyed the Krill ship and are suddenly on the ground below them and closing fast, interfering with their rescue.

“Give me the gun,” Mercer says, realizing they need to hold them off long enough for the shuttle to land. And Teleya can’t wield it properly as she needs to stay underneath his jacket, sheltered from the sun. She hesitates as they stand together at the beacon. “Teleya, give me the damn gun.”

_When she finally hands him the gun . . ._

_She realizes that some part of her trusts him_.

And they survive.

* * *

They had been retrieved by one of The Orville’s shuttles, and now that they’re both back on board. . .

Captain Mercer informs his crew that they will be releasing Teleya back to the Krill, even though he doesn’t really the have authority to do so. His first officer warns him against making such a move as it will likely end in a court martial for him. He acknowledges her concern, but proceeds anyway. 

He informs Teleya that he’s letting her go

_And wonders if she'll understand that it’s because -_

“If you believe releasing me will somehow improve relations between our people, you are indulging another fantasy.”

“Defect of my species - we never give up hope,” Ed Mercer says. “If you ever get the itch to do movie night again, you know where to find me.”

When he places The Best of Billy Joel in the palm of her hand as a parting gift,

_It’s because he still loves her._

And when she turns back to face him one last time before she leaves,

 _He wonders if she realizes that he hopes she still does too_.

__

Scotch and Popcorn

The perfect pairing.

In a more civilized universe, they most definitely would be.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, Skittle!  
> Hope this wasn't too jumbled with my brain fog, lack of beta, and all.  
> But I did my best given the circumstances!


End file.
